W. Track runs well in Raleigh

Two weekends ago, the Penn women's track team competed in rainy, cold and windy conditions at Franklin Field in the Quaker Invitational. Last weekend the Quakers traveled to North Carolina for the Raleigh Relays expecting much better racing conditions. But Mother Nature did not cooperate. "We had driven all the way down south and the weather wasn't any better than at Philadelphia," Penn senior Aqiyla Muhammed said. "It was rainy and cold but we still had to perform in those conditions." Luckily for the Quakers, the North Carolina skies cleared on Saturday, leaving only a cool breeze behind. In spite of the changing weather conditions, Penn garnered five top-10 individual performances and four relay teams in the top 16 at the Raleigh Relays last Friday and Saturday at Paul Derr Track and Field Stadium. "The team had a great meet, especially the runners," Penn assistant coach Tony Tenisci said. "The technical people still have some work to do, however." Leading the way for the Quakers was sophomore Bassey Adjah. She competed in two individual and two relay events, finishing no lower than 16th in any of them. Adjah was at her finest in her first event, the long jump. She finished ninth out of 45 competitors with a jump of 19'1.5'', seven inches better than her previous best. "It came up on my first jump," Adjah said of her personal record leap. "I was so surprised and so happy, people looked at me like I was crazy the way I was jumping up and down after the jump." The Piscataway, N.J., native then ran in the 400-meter hurdles. She did not turn in a PR but her finishing time of 1:03.78 was good enough for a 10th-place finish. "Last week [at the Quaker Relays] the people who set the hurdles up messed up," Adjah said. "Three of my hurdles were on the men's height. But I had no excuse this time." Adjah also ran legs in two relays, the 4x200-meters and the 4x400-meters. The 4x200-meter team placed 15th out of 38 teams, while the 4x400-meter team placed 16th out of 46. The Penn relay teams had strong meets as a whole, although a missed handoff between Richelle Clements and captain Shana McDonald-Black in the 4x100-meter relay cost the Quakers a place. The sprint medley team finished 11th out of 23 teams, while the 4x800-meter runners all turned in sub-2:20 splits en route to a 10th-place finish. Three other Penn individuals recorded top-10 performances this weekend. Pole vaulter Liz Wittels cleared 10 feet to tie for fifth, while two of the teams' captains -- Jessica Mitchell and Rita Garber -- established themselves among the top middle and long-distance runners, respectively. Mitchell finished a second off her PR in the 800 meters but her time of 2:11.76 was good enough for seventh in the elite field of 18 invited runners. "She didn't blow it out in the first 400," Tenisci said. "She paced herself and brought it in really strong in the last 400. She ran a really intelligent race." Garber finished sixth in a crowded field of 50 runners in the 3,000 meters. Her time of 9:54.61 was an outdoor PR for the senior. Sophomore JaJuan Gair also performed well for the Quakers. She finished 15th in the 100-meter high hurdles with a time of 14.57 seconds. "I ended up hitting a hurdle so it wasn't my best time," Gair said. "It wasn't a clean race for me." While the runners and jumpers fared well in Raleigh, the throwers did not join in their success. With captain Luana Botelho out with a fractured finger, the Quakers struggled to qualify in their events. The lone bright spot was sophomore Yinka Orafidiya, whose 40'.75" throw in the shot put was good enough for 27th place. Penn will return to action on the track Saturday in the University of Pennsylvania Invitational. The Quakers are hoping the unpleasant weather of the past two meets will not repeat itself at Franklin Field.